Dungeons and Dragon Slayers
by Divinion
Summary: Clearing out the guild library, Erza uncovers the roleplaying game Dungeons and Dragons and is determined that Natsu, Happy, Lucy, Gray, Wendy and Charlie are all going to play it with her! What could possibly go wrong...? ((No previous D&D knowledge required!))
1. Session 1 Character Creation

Step 1; Character Creation!

 **This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever written... Enjoy!**

 **Don't worry! You don't need to know anything about any kind of roleplaying game to enjoy this.**

 **Please note, if you're a genuine D &D fan, they're actually not playing D&D they're playing Pathfinder since this is the game I play, I just thought the name was too fitting :)**

* * *

Following the latest failed mission and the millions of Jewel that the guild had to give to the poor destroyed town after Natsu and Gray's latest fight, the Master announced that the punishment for Fairy Tail's Strongest Team was to clear out the guild's library. While Erza, Happy, Wendy, Charlie and Lucy had originally objected to being a part of the punishment, seeing that Gray and Natsu's fight hadn't resolved their disagreement they decided it was safest for everyone if they accompanied them and ensured that the ancient books didn't turn to piles of ash or splintered ice. It was here that Erza found an interesting book, one that had caught her eye as the front cover was embellished with a picture of a roaring dragon and magic users. While she knew that the dragon slayer would never have the attention span to read an entire book, his keen eye for all things 'dragon' had obviously influenced her as she decided that day she would take the book home and study in case there was anything she could interest her friend in.

The next day when they came to the library for their second day of punishment, she held the book tightly in her hands with a beaming smile on her face. It was the kind of smile that her friends knew to fear, since it usually meant that she had a new obsession.

"What's with the book, Erza?" Gray dared to ask.

"It's a game," she announced proudly as she placed it down on the table. "A game that we will all be playing."

They all leaned over the table, looking at the picture of the front cover and glancing back over to the proud requip wizard. "Dungeons and Dragons?" Lucy read out loud.

"Is it a game with dragons?" Natsu questioned.

Erza's hands were proudly on her hips. "It's a role playing game. You create characters and the game is played with your imagination. I will be the Dungeon Master and I will be telling the story," she nodded assertively.

Lucy and Gray gave each other dubious looks. Natsu was not quite so subtle. "That sounds dumb."

The glare in Erza's eyes was instant, the fury of her rage brewing ready to strike out against him. "I will show you it is not dumb. I've read this book entirely now and I feel confident that we can enjoy this. Now everyone sit down and we'll begin."

"Um, Erza, aren't we supposed to be tidying the library…?" Lucy asked hesitantly, fearing the master's wrath almost as much as Erza's.

"We're taking a break," Erza announced as she pushed back the chair and threw open the book. "The master didn't give us a time limit for our punishment, so we can continue after we've created the characters. Now, everyone, take your seats."

Satisfied that Erza was the far more daunting threat right now, they all took their seats around the table – or in Happy's case, on the table – and watched Erza's stern explanations of what the different races of the alternative universe represented. She read almost word for word the entire first ten pages, though the way that she spoke made it clear she seemed to think she was making it easier for the others to understand. Lucy, Wendy and Charlie leaned in, trying to follow the quick talking, but one by one they began to flag. Gray was leaning low in his seat as he created iced versions of the die Erza had described, experimenting in ways to make them both balanced and completely biased. Natsu, however, was snoring loudly.

Erza's hand slammed onto the table and Natsu woke with a start. He rubbed his face quickly, staring up at the angry redhead and absently wondering what he had done wrong. "Huh?"

"Natsu you've not been listening to a word I've been saying!" Erza hissed.

"Yes I have. Something about Giants and something?" Natsu exclaimed.

"Giants aren't a playable race, Natsu!" she exclaimed, gritting her teeth tightly together. "You haven't been listening at all!"

Gray smirked.

Natsu rolled his eyes. "Why do I need to know all about them? I'm going to play a dragon."

"Dragons aren't a playable race either," Erza hissed.

"Then why is there one on the front cover?" he yelled.

Erza blinked, obviously not quite knowing the answer and grumbling to herself as she pulled the book back open and began to pour herself back into the words, trying to find an answer to the persistent dragon slayer. She was certain she read something about dragons somewhere, but it was a particularly big book.

"Erza, maybe we should have more than one book…" Wendy suggested in a soft voice, realising that the room had submerged into silence with Erza now guarding the only remaining source of information.

"Hey, I'm sure that Levy has some kind of writing replication spell," Lucy thought out loud. "Maybe if you can just lend me the book, Erza…" she suggested, leaning over the table and trying to take it from her.

"We are going to create these characters now!" Erza snapped, determined as she put the book back into the middle of the table, keeping her hand firmly over it. She cleared her throat, calming herself as she looked back to Natsu. "Dragons are generally either none-playable-characters, 'NPC's, or enemy encounters, as they tend to be too powerful to be playable characters."

"That's why I want to be one!" Natsu cried out.

"Will you just pick something else so she can move on?" Gray rolled his eyes.

"I don't even know what I'm picking!"

"It's your character's race, flame brain. Human, elf… those weird half things… Something else, maybe…?" Gray said, finding that Erza's eyes were quickly falling against him with the same scorn.

"You weren't paying attention either?" Erza glared.

Gray could feel the cold fear. "I, uh, was trying to?"

"Oh for goodness sake! I'll do it!" Erza rolled her eyes, instantly losing all patience and taking the book back into her arms. "If you're going to be so difficult then I'll create your characters for you! Just don't blame me if you don't like any of them!"

Lucy and Wendy gave each other a look. They really had been trying to keep up with the information that Erza had been pouring into them, but they knew that they'd struggle to relay much more to her than Gray who had clearly failed his interrogation. "Erza, could we make a copy of the book so that we know the rules…?" Lucy asked awkwardly clearing her throat. Not that she would ever dare question Erza's version of the rules over the book's.

Erza blinked, suddenly remembering the two quiet girls that had been to the far side. "Oh, of course. Just make sure that I can have it back straight away. In the meantime," she turned her glare back to Gray and Natsu, "I believe you were still being punished. This library is still a mess."

* * *

Levy looked over the pages with interest, pouring herself into the book and almost forgetting that she was asked to replicate it. "Oh, sorry!" she laughed to herself as she realised the others had been staring at her for some time. "Yes, it shouldn't be a problem to make a few copies of this since there's no real magic in the pages. Would you mind if I made a copy for myself?"

Lucy was surprised. They hadn't even had a chance to read through it since prizing it from Erza's protective hands but Lucy couldn't have expected it to be so interesting to the script Mage. "Is it really that good?" she asked, tilting her head to the side.

"It just seems fun!" Levy admitted, beginning to craft her writing powers and conjuring the first book, placing it in front of Charlie. "Maybe we could create another game if yours goes well."

"I, uh, don't think ours is going well so far…" Lucy admitted.

"I've never seen Natsu and Erza arguing so much before…" Wendy whispered, looking genuinely terrified. "Natsu and Gray seem half asleep for most of it, and Erza has so many rules I can't keep up…"

"Well, maybe it will be better after the characters have been created and we can actually start the game," Lucy shrugged.

"Wait, Erza is the DM?" Levy asked. When they looked at her blankly, she realised she needed to translate. "The 'Dungeon Master'… The one in charge of all of the rules and characters and… Ohh, uh, well... Good luck!" she grinned, passing the heavy volumes into their hands.

* * *

The girls distributed the books to the guys, though they had no doubt that they would be nothing more than oversized doorstops. It was clear that by the end of the day everyone was sick of all books, however, and when Wendy and Charlie accidentally crashed into the bookcase and a mishandled attempt to save her caused the entire unit to collapse into a pile of pages, they were worse than square one. Even though they had several hours left of the day, they all took one look at the new pile of workload and decided that it was best to cut their losses and prepare for a longer day tomorrow.

The next morning, they despaired to find that, unsurprisingly, the chaos was exactly how they had left it. Natsu and Wendy began work with their flying companions to repair the broken shelves while Gray and Lucy went back to sorting through the books that they could place into the still stable bookshelves. Erza had been absent since receiving the new copy of the game, but she was no where to be seen for most of that day too. Just as they began to talk of sending someone to recover the requip wizard, the redhead ran down the steps with pieces of paper flying around her.

"I've made the charac-" her words cut off mid word, seeing the huge piles of splintered wood and bookshelves that had not been fully repaired. "What happened?!"

"It was an accident," Lucy said quickly, knowing that Wendy would struggle to defend herself if Erza began her fierce ranting. "One of the bookshelves collapsed after you left last night. We've almost fixed it now, right guys?" she said, looking up to the flying dragon slayers.

Wendy nodded, and Natsu beamed and gave a thumbs up, their Exceeds both floating them closer to the requip wizard.

Erza rubbed her forehead. "There's no room to play…" she complained, seeing the table they had all sat beside the day before now piled high with ancient parchment. "OK, I guess that I should take the time to run through your characters individually…"

"Erza I made my own!"

Erza looked up, surprised not only to hear that one of her companions had been interested enough to pour over the character creation but mostly by who it was. Happy flew himself and Natsu down as he jumped off his dragon slayers back, walking up to Erza and holding up a very childish scribble.

"Happy? When did you do that?" Natsu questioned.

"When you were asleep! Look Erza! He's a cat folk and a paladin and he's huge and scary and really cool!" he said, pointing at the picture.

Gray took a look at the picture, the triangles on the stick figure's head now obviously ears and not just misplaced teeth. "That can't be a real thing…"

Erza smirked, leaning down and taking the picture and the few other sheets from Happy's paw. "If you read the book, Gray, you'd know it very much is a real thing," she smiled at the exceed proudly, nodding to him. "Thank you, Happy, this will do wonderfully. Though I'm not sure that I believe you rolled perfect twenties on all of your stats…"

"I did! Just ask Natsu!" Happy exclaimed.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, he did!" Natsu shrugged.

Erza glared at them both. "Well, let's redo it just to be on the safe side," she decided, folding her arms across her chest in case they decided to argue further. "Now, we need to clear some space, but in the meantime I'll talk to each of you about your individual character. I'll let you four repair the bookcase since you've already begun so… Lucy, you can be first," she said, eyes falling upon the first victim.

Lucy swallowed nervously, walking forwards.

The others resumed their work as one by one Erza pulled them away into the next room to talk about their character. Lucy was the first and by far the easiest to explain, as Lucy had already been half way through her character when Erza had taken the creation process for herself and the two had agreed upon an Elven Bard to offer the support to their team. If Lucy had wanted to question any part of her new character she didn't dare, feeling Erza's pride as a more terrifying entity than her anger.

Gray was not so blindly accepting. "Erza… Is this actually my sheet?" he questioned.

Erza nodded, letting Gray's eyes fall once again on the papers. "I've tried to give everyone characters that are different to their own to force them to get into the 'roleplaying' side of the game and think differently to how you normally would. I'm trusting you with the magic user of the party. I think you are capable of remembering that this is a different character, not you."

"Yeah, you're telling me…" Gray glanced back through the sheets, noting all of his stats and frowning at the low strength. From what little he could remember paying attention to Erza's explanations, the wizards of this world took a far more traditional approach of strong magical power and weak physical attacks, a somewhat racist stereotype that had been long ingrained into the many non-magical citizens of Fiore. "Why put me as the Wizard, then?" he questioned, realising that there would have been far easier options if she really had wanted to contrasted his character with his own personality.

"Because I trust you," Erza leaned back nodding, completely missing the look of sheer shock written across Gray's face. "You and Lucy are the only ones that I know without hesitation are creative enough to play this game – if you could stop being influenced by Natsu and actually pay attention," her eyes flew open into a poisonous warning glare.

Gray rolled his eyes, not wanting to admit that Natsu would ever affect his decisions unless he was going out of his way to annoy the fire dragon slayer. "Whatever," he murmured. "So I've got to pick spells out, right?" he asked, pulling upon the nearest book and beginning to lazily flick through the pages.

"Don't you dare pick ice magic…" Erza warned him.

"Oh no, I actually have a better idea…" he grinned mischievously, standing up before Erza could question him further. "I'll get dragon breath to come grab you. Please tell him that you got him something awful."

Erza glared, "None of my characters are awful. I just gave him something challenging," she said, a knowing smile as the smallest hint of her own mischievous nature showing in her eyes as showed Gray his friend's character sheet.

Gray took one look at the character and laughed, shaking his head. "Natsu is going to kill you, you realise?"

"He can try," Erza shrugged. "I'm sure I can handle myself. Please, bring him over."

Gray continued to shake his head in disbelief, walking back through to the main room, pleased to see that the bookshelf was now looking stable and Happy and Charlie were flying only to place the heavy books on the very top shelves while the others were all content to carry and use the ladders supplied. "Hey, hot head!" Gray called to Natsu, pointing backwards with his thumb. "You're gonna love this," he grinned from ear to ear.

Confused but now sceptical, the dragon slayer disappeared into the back room. Two seconds later, the yelling began.

"That can't be good…" Lucy said, holding onto the nearest books tightly. "I thought Erza wasn't making bad characters…?"

Gray simply couldn't wipe the smile from his face as he shrugged his shoulders. "It's not a bad character. Just a cleric."

"You mean… The healer?" Wendy asked, her voice so quiet it was barely audible without shaking.

"Well, that's just rude," Charlie frowned, folding her paws across her chest and looking at Wendy protectively.

"I'm not sure that Natsu would make a very good healer…" Wendy admitted, trying to ignore the look that Charlie was giving her. "Why would Erza give Natsu that role?"

Gray shrugged. "Erza said something about trying to give people different characters to their own personalities to force them to act differently or something," he shrugged again, going back to the original punishment of putting the books tidily away.

Wendy and Charlie gave each other a worried look, the only two that hadn't yet received their new responsibilities. "I'm not sure I want to play this game…" Wendy admitted as Erza and Natsu's shouting finally quietened down.

Eventually Natsu stormed out, slamming the nearest pile of books as he did so, resulting in yet another argument between the dragon slayer and ice maker who had been trying to tidy that particular stack for the last hour. As Lucy and Happy were left desperately trying to pull the pair from each other and avoid yet another punishment from the master, Wendy and Charlie entered the room determined to let Erza know that this was simply not the kind of game they were interested in playing.

"Ah, you're both here. Oh good," Erza grinned brightly as she passed them both their sheets and tactfully ignored the sounds of the two destroying half of the library just beyond the doors.

"Erm, Erza-san, I'm not…" Wendy began awkwardly, barely glancing at the paper now in her hands.

"Charlie, you are a Rogue. I've kept you as human but if you want to be a cat folk too then we can arrange that. You are the thief of the group."

"A thief?" Charlie blinked, looking at the scribbles from Erza and trying to understand any of it. It must have been one of the last characters written, she decided, as the handwriting was truly awful, though glancing over to Wendy's paper it didn't seem much better.

"Erza-San…" Wendy began again nervously.

"Wendy, your role is very important," Erza said, her eyes gleaming even more than when she had first announced the game. "You are a fierce warrior responsible for protecting the rest of your party with an array of weaponry and armour!"

Wendy cautiously halted her complaints and looked down at the sheet, seeing that it had been completely filled. Every weapon box had detailed descriptions of complex swords, her inventory had been loaded with shields and armour of all kinds and the realisation slowly began to dawn upon her. "Erza-San… This character is you…" she said slowly, even glancing over to Charlie's sheet and finding she was already four levels stronger than her feline companion.

Erza blushed deeply. "No you're not!" she defended herself, pointing to the sheet. "It clearly says here that your character is blond."

Wendy trembled. "…I-I'm not sure… Are you sure that… Well... Maybe me and Natsu-San can swap…?"

Erza glared, eyes filled with fury. "You don't like it?!" she whispered in a crushing yet terrifying disappointment.

Wendy squealed, realising now escape was hopeless. There was no way that she could turn down a character that Erza had so obviously crafted from her own strengths and attributes without deeply offending her, but it meant that now the sky dragon slayer had a responsibility on her shoulders far heavier than she could have dared imagine. "No! Not that's not what I meant! Only that Natsu didn't seem happy with his and this is such a wonderful character… Th-thank you, Erza-San…" she said, too terrified to say anything else as she held the paper in trembling hands.

Clearly far more satisfied with this new answer, Erza smiled proudly. "Thank you. Now we're finally ready to begin."

* * *

Erza - Dungeon Master

Lucy – Bard. Elf.

Gray – Wizard. (Banned from Ice.) Halfling

Natsu – Cleric. Half-elf.

Happy – Cat Folk Paladin

Wendy – Fighter Human warrior (basically Erza)

Charlie – Rogue Human

* * *

 **I never intended for this idea to be written down. This was a ridiculous plot that I came up with one day that I started talking to my friend about and we ended up giggling about it. Then in the Christmassy happiness I thought I'd make something a bit funnier than usual.**

 **This is all going to go so horrifically wrong! When we first began to talk about it our initial reaction was 'Natsu will do terribly!' Then when I realised that Erza would be determined to be the DM... Well, she'll be even worse!**

 **I don't know if I'm going to keep writing this, so let me know if you'd like to see more? I've just started a game of Pathfinder with my friends and if I do keep this going, I'll probably just steal the plot that we're playing in our own game and twist it into these guys.**


	2. Session 2 An Introduction

The priority now lay on clearing the library enough for the game to officially begin. While previously Erza had clearly not cared how long it took to finish their punishment, now the untidiness was affecting her new obsession she quickly whipped the others into shape as they all mercilessly toiled over the books. By the end of the first day the table was once more clear, allowing enough room for the companions to comfortably sit for hours – if that was possible.

"I can't believe that Erza really gave Natsu the healer…" Wendy murmured under her breath. "I'm not sure if this kind of game will be something he can really do at all."

"I think it's hilarious," Gray grinned, flicking through the pages and folding over each of the sections he thought could be of interest.

"Gray-San, that's not very nice to Wendy, you know," Charlie sharply reminded him, her hands on her hips as she glared up at the Ice Maker, her white fur bristled not for the first time.

"Huh?" Gray looked between the blushing sky wizard and her exceed, genuinely confused before holding up his hands. "Hey, I'm not saying anything against healers. I'm just saying Natsu being a healer is hilarious. Come on, even you've got to see that, right?"

Wendy hesitated but shook her head. "I don't think it's very funny if he's obviously not going to be enjoying himself."

"Maybe it'll be a good thing," Lucy said, overhearing as she pushed the last few books onto the remaining shelves. "It couldn't hurt Natsu to see things from a different perspective. I think Levy was right, this really could be fun."

"You're only saying that because you got to make your own character," Charlie muttered as she folded her paws over her chest.

"Well, not exactly," she admitted with a sigh. "She made me a bard alright, but none of my stats or skills are anywhere near what I would have chosen and why does a bard need a long sword anyway…?" she asked, twisting her mouth. "I guess that we'll just have to see how it plays out."

They agreed that that was all they truly could do and headed home, exhausted after a long day of physical labour and preparing themselves for an even longer day of mental strain.

The next morning was met with mixed anticipation, but Erza was clearly happy enough to compensate for any apprehension. She had a beaming grin as she proudly held her notes close to her chest, showing them the table as she had arranged it. A large screen had been set up to one side, which she instructed them was for her own secret dice rolls and so that she could develop her story without prying eyes. She placed dice into each of their hands, reminding Gray after watching him roll several hundred perfect throws that creating his own iced die was strictly forbidden, and they were finally ready to begin.

 _It was September 22_ _nd_ _, and it was a mild day. The town was called Saltwell. It was a large town. The group are all a part of the local guard. One day they go to work. The meeting point is the guard hut to the north of the town. Inside is the guard captain. His name is Sarge._

The team looked at one another. Erza was appearing incredibly proud of her story already, but they couldn't help but notice in her brief and halting descriptions she had already poured her way through at least half of her notes.

"I don't want to be a guard," Natsu muttered, already rolling his eyes.

Erza gave a frown. "You have to be a guard, that's a part of the story."

"Then I quit," Natsu exclaimed.

"What?" Erza blinked.

 _"I quit," said the cleric half elf, Thiadas._

Erza's eyes blazed in quick anger. "You can't just quit!" she exclaimed. "That's not how the story goes!"

Gray and Happy couldn't help but laugh, and even Lucy felt herself trying desperately to hide her smiles. Wendy just looked at Erza terrified, Charlie's features once more in a disapproving frown.

"Isn't that how we play?" Natsu asked.

"Well – that- it-" Erza stammered, completely flustered. "But you can't quit the guard! What would your character do for money?"

"I dunno. Join a guild?" Natsu smirked.

"But that's not what the story is supposed to do!" Erza yelled, her fists hitting the table.

"Let me, Erza…" Lucy said, desperately trying to calm down all sides as she took the dice into her hands.

 _"Hang on, Thiadas," said the beautiful tall elf maiden, Syr, looking at her new teammate. "Perhaps we can use whatever mission the guard give us to see if there is anything better in this town. You'd be letting the rest of us down if you didn't join us."_

Lucy rolled the dice. "Yes! 19!" she smiled proudly.

Natsu looked at between Erza, Lucy and the dice. "Wait, what did you do?"

Erza nodded approvingly to Lucy and gave Natsu a warning glare. "Lucy – Sorry, Syr – has successfully persuaded Thiadas. You decide to go to the guard hut."

"What!?" Natsu yelled, "That's not fair!"

 _Sarge pretends that he hadn't heard. "Alright, I have a mission for all of you," he says. "The rest of the guards are gathered at the gate. Bad people are trying to get in and you need to stop them."_

 _"Oh sure, this sounds like a great plan to find other work – stand at the gate," Thiadas said sarcastically. "It's a good job I'm so persuaded to stay with the guard duty."_

 _"Are you seriously going to complain the entire time?" questioned Ajax, the small Halfling carrying a wizard's spell book._

"Wait, how small is small?" Natsu asked, reaching over and grabbing Gray's sheet from him.

"Natsu!" Gray yelled, making a grab but finding it slipping through his fingers.

"You're literally three foot tall! You're even shorter than Wendy!" he laughed uncontrollably, toppling from his chair.

Gray gritted his teeth, angrily snatching the sheet back from his 'friend' and kicking him in the side. "Can we please just keep going?" he asked, looking back to Erza.

Erza blinked, staring at the papers that shook in her hands.

The room was suddenly in silence, everyone staring at Erza as she looked at her notes, shaking in a way that made her appear either ready to pounce or ready to cry.

"Erza-San…?" Wendy whispered.

"That took me three hours to write…" Erza whispered, hiding behind her heavy red hair. "Be right back," she hissed quickly, jumping out of her chair and rushing into the far room.

The room was left in a stunned silence as they watched the suddenly flustered requip Mage disappear. Slowly the rest of the team turned to each other, wondering what was left to do or who would be the first to suggest that maybe, just maybe, they should probably go back to tidying the library while she was gone.

"I didn't even get to show my Paladin…" Happy said, clutching his stick figure and almost crying.

"Well, this is a predictable disaster," Gray shrugged his shoulders, leaning back on the chair and absently looking in the direction Erza had disappeared into.

"Poor Erza-San…" Wendy whispered as she looked up at the door. "She's really trying."

"You shouldn't be so difficult towards her, Natsu," Charlie scolded, swiftly glaring at the male dragon slayer.

Natsu's eyes went wide. "Hey, I was just making it more interesting!" he defended himself quickly.

Lucy sighed, pulling herself up from the table. "I hate to agree, but if Natsu hadn't interrupted it would have been even shorter. I'll talk to her. Maybe I can help her come up with some more ideas or something…" she said, her mouth twisting uneasily as she slowly walked to the far room.

Hesitantly, ignoring the fact that she was fairly certain she could hear Natsu and Gray once again arguing behind her, Lucy knocked on the door. Not hearing an answer, she turned the handle and peered inside. "Um, Erza…?" she questioned lightly, stepping in and seeing the flurry of badly scribbled papers thrown all around the tiny room.

Erza was sat in the very centre, a frown on her face and a pencil almost chewed to pieces tapping angrily in her hand. She stared at the pages, her face burning red. "It took me three hours to write. I thought it would have at least lasted six."

Lucy stepped forward nervously. "Aha, uh, yeah, that's kind of how it works with my writing too, I guess," she admitted as she hesitantly knelt in front of the fierce redhead. It was clear that this new failure did not sit comfortably with the S-Class Mage, and her weakness actually seemed to make her even more terrifying. "It usually takes a lot longer to write something then it does to actually read it, especially if you're not used to it."

Erza continued to frown to herself, picking up piece of paper one after another and glancing through her scrambled notes. Then she saw that her friend was glancing at them too and quickly shot a glare. "You shouldn't be seeing these," she scowled.

Lucy squealed, backing away quickly. "I-I'm sorry I didn't mean to!"

Something clicked in Erza's mind. She reached up suddenly, grabbing a hold of the celestial wizard as her eyes shone brightly. "Lucy, you're a writer! You can write the story!"

Lucy blinked. "Keh?"

Erza's grip was tightening painfully, the gleaming idea sparkling in her eyes. "Of course, why didn't I think of this sooner? You would be perfect. If you can just write the story for me then we can play much faster!"

Lucy tried to shuffle away, not daring to tell the redhead that she was genuinely starting to hurt her now. "Uh, Erza, I can't. I can't write the story if I'm playing, or I'll know what's going to happen…" she pointed out, hoping that this would let her off the hook.

Erza paused, her grip relaxing just for a moment as she frowned in thought. "Well, I suppose there is only one thing for it then. You'll have to be the DM."

"WHAT?!"

It wasn't up for debate. Suddenly Lucy was showered in papers and notes that made very little sense, pointed to pages in the book that Erza had found of particularly interest – which was, in fact, most of it – and generally having to fight her own sense of dread. She'd never let anyone read her writing and now she would have to present it in an even more personal and adaptable way than ever. Though no one could necessarily say that Erza had been a good DM, she still presented incredibly big shoes to fill and now Lucy was left with the daunting task of keeping Gray and Natsu at bay while entertaining the entire team.

Lucy was exhausted just thinking about it. "OK… OK…" she murmured slowly, beginning to put things into her own piles. "Just give me a few minutes, OK? You can have another look at Syr."

"Syr?" Erza asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Yes, your character…" Lucy said slowly.

"But Syr is your character. I want to create my own character," Erza stated.

Lucy sighed, realising that while she had been so worried about controlling Natsu and Gray, Erza would pose her own kind of difficulty. "It wouldn't be fair if you had a new character and no one else did. Besides, you created her, and you said that people should try and play characters different to how they act…" she suggested tentatively.

A new challenge had presented itself, and after failing the last one so terribly Erza wasn't going to let this one go so easily. It was clear that she was still struggling, but reluctantly nodded and braved a smile. "I will play the greatest and most powerful Elven Bard ever!" she announced loudly, standing quickly.

Lucy didn't dare tell Erza why this didn't fill her with the most confidence.

* * *

Half an hour later, Erza and Lucy had swapped seats. Erza had the 'mild mannered' Elven bard in her hands, while Lucy was standing at the top of the table, lightly clearing her throat for attention as she slowly lowered herself to her new seat. "Right, I haven't exactly had long to prepare anything for this, so please be patient…" she explained nervously, knowing that she had a lot of distractible yet incredibly powerful wizards watching her. "We'll use this first game as a kind of tutorial anyway."

She swallowed hard, pulling her ponytail tighter as a determined look appeared on her face. "The important thing to remember is that almost every situation has two ways of dealing with it: fighting or strategy. Sometimes fighting is inescapable, but sometimes it isn't the right thing to do either. We'll explore a few different ways of playing and dice rolls and…" she grinned, realising she was quickly losing her audience. "OK, let's just go for it."

 _The town of Saltwell was one of the largest in a string of towns dotted across the swirling sands of a wide and vast desert wasteland. In the midst of the unbearable sand dunes, the days were long and the nights frozen, but that day in Saltwell there was a cool breeze that kept the temperature mild as Summer began to turn to Autumn._

 _The town was made of five sections. There was the copper district, which mostly comprised of markets and tradesman, Steel for the forgers and blacksmiths, Runic for the mages, Gold for the nobles, and Tanin, the dwelling of the great Sorcerer King. The surrounding areas were the farmlands and trading lines, all of which were protected by the Sorcerer King of the land and magically blessed with favourable weather and lush earth to help their trade._

 _To the very edge of the city is where your first mission rests, at a large guard hut. Inside is a tall human, strong looking and stern but clearly a man who has not had to endure a difficult life. His name is Captain Ramiz Calzon. He calls you into the office and quickly begins to give the orders of the day._

 _"Right, I was planning on getting you lot to scout the perimeter today, but it looks like the guards at the gate have run into a bit of trouble. I can't say I really care, but they've asked for an extra hand and you unlucky bastards happen to have drawn the short straw. Go sort them out," Ramiz tells the party with a very disinterested look._

The team looked at Lucy, stunned into silence.

"What?" Lucy asked, feeling as if there might have been something on her face from the way they were looking at her.

"I knew from the start that you would make an excellent Dungeon Master; that was my plan from the beginning," Erza said, proudly nodding to herself, hiding the way that the contrasting storytelling tore through her and ignoring the doubtful glances from her comrades.

Lucy blushed so deeply it almost resembled Erza's hair colour. "I-I haven't even done anything yet…" she said, almost as if she wasn't completely adoring the praise. "So, what do you decide to do?"

 _Meowtaur the Great and Powerful Catfolk Paladin stepped forward. "We will gladly take this noble quest, Captain!" he said with a mighty salute._

"Happy, please don't stand on the map…" Lucy said.

"Oh, sorry!" Happy jumped back.

 _The captain grunts an acceptance and goes back to his seat, pointing vaguely in the direction of the guards at the gate._

 _Meowtaur leads the way towards the guards proudly, as the rest have little choice but to follow him – especially Thiadas, who is still very much persuaded to stay within the guard duty. Walking out of the hut and towards the main gates it is soon easy for everyone to see and hear the commotion going around. There are about a dozen people standing outside of the gates and five guards who are standing watch and trying to deal with the growing crowd. It is clear that the people outside of the gate are growing impatient as some try to step forwards, only to be held back by the guards._

 _One of the guards, appearing in slightly smarter and more expensive armour than the rest, steps towards the party. "Ah, you're one of Ramiz's lot, aren't you?" he asks you all, looking exasperated._

 _"What's happened here?" Electra, the definitely not redhead Fighter Human asked, stepping forward_ _cautiously_ _confidently._

 _The man gestured back to his brothers-in-arms. "Well, you guys all know about the rebels, right?" It is common knowledge that many of the surrounding cities have had difficulties with uprisings against the Sorcerer Kings, though the motive behind these attacks is lost in rumours. "We're a little short-handed, but we got a tip-off that some of the rebels are going to be coming into our city today. We need to decide who to let in. Will you help us out?"_

 _"Of course!" Syr said, looking at the growing crowd. "Leave it to us. You have nothing to worry about."_

 _The guard looks at you doubtfully, but shakes his head. All remaining guards step back and allow you to step forwards and make your decision._

Lucy looked to the others carefully, taking the opportunity to explain a little more of the mechanics of the game and the importance of the skills they all had even when not in a battle situation. She showed them their perception, sense motive and encouraged them to practise getting used to the roleplay-

 _"Let's just let them all in," Thiadus said loudly, rolling his eyes and folding his arms._

 _"Did you not hear what they said, Thiadus?" said Raeanna, the Rogue human, as she narrowed her eyes towards the cleric. "Some of these men will be a part of the rebellion."_

 _"Yeah, so what? Who says it's that bad anyway," Thiadus continued, clearly convinced that he would stay within the guard duty just long enough to see himself fired._

"Uh, guys, why is Lucy smiling like that…?" Gray asked, raising an eyebrow as Lucy disappeared beneath the screen.

"Lucy's been replaced by super Kowai Edo-Lucy!" Happy screamed, disappearing under the table and shivering.

Lucy was grinning, finally realising the power that she had as a devilish look filled her eyes and continued.

 _Overhearing, a few of the nearest and angriest at the gate push forwards. After hearing the Cleric's loud opinions, they are now distinctly under the impression that if they make a run for the gate then they will not be stopped._

 _"Thiadus, you idiot!" Ajax yelled._

 _"Huh?"_

 _The men begin to run inside, and though the few scattered guards are nearby they are no-where near enough to stop them and are completely unprepared. A few have rushed into the city before you can stop them, and spurred on by their actions the rest of those at the gates have pushed forwards as well. The guards are having better luck with these outsiders, but it is clear that they will quickly be overthrown unless helped. Meanwhile the few that escaped into the city are seconds from disappearing from sight._

 _Swiftly, Rae pulls out her longbow and points it straight to the escaping rule breakers that were merging into the city. "Stop right there!" she yelled loudly, and let fly her first arrow._

 _The man was hit squarely in the back with a thud. It was enough to stop him, but not enough to make him fall, and he turns back angrily. A couple of the escapees, seeing the new guards are attacking those running, stop in their tracks, holding their hands up in submission. However, others just ran faster._

 _"Watch this, Raeanna!" Meowtaur shouted loudly, swinging his sword and rushing forwards. With his feline speed he quickly closed the gap against the nearest enemy and hurtled his great axe through the air._

 _Completely missing his target._

"Sorry Happy…" Lucy shrugged, tilting her head to the side. "At least it wasn't a critical fail…"

Happy sunk down into his pit of embarrassment, thrown into silence until it was once again his turn.

"Alright, we're finally getting to the good stuff!" Natsu exclaimed loudly, his hands tightened into excited fists as he even stood up. "Let's burn this place down!"

"You don't have any fire spells, Natsu, you're a cleric…" Lucy had to remind him with a sigh.

"No, but I do," Gray said with a mischievous grin.

The party turned to Gray questioningly. "You chose fire magic? I know you were told not to use ice magic, but… why fire?" Lucy questioned innocently.

Natsu was, predictably, less than pleased. "Why does the Ice Princess get to use fire magic and I can't?!" he yelled.

Erza frowned, her eyes growing dangerously close to her fierceness as she stared at the proud looking Ice Maker. "Did you really choose your spells just to piss off Natsu?"

Gray shrugged his shoulders, though he was obviously taking some effort to stop himself from laughing as he leaned backwards. "I was just trying to get into character. Have you read the bio for halflings? Irritating, childish, good for nothing weakling race."

"What does that have to do with fire magic…?" Wendy asked.

The contact of Natsu's fist with Gray's face showed that he had at least made the connection and confirmed that Erza was right, he had chosen his spells for the sole reason of irritating the fire Dragon Slayer. The two were instantly pulled into yet another of their fist fights, shouting insults at one another as Erza dived over the table to interject, sending papers and books flying. An ice shard slammed into the newly constructed shelves, while a dragon roar sent the western section into a blaze.

Lucy's hands were in her hair, staring at the remains of the board in despair. How was she supposed to control this world when they couldn't even control themselves…?

* * *

Lucy – Dungeon Master (DM)

Erza – Syr – Bard. Elf.

Gray – Ajax - Wizard. Halfling

Natsu – Thiadas - Cleric. Half-elf.

Happy – Meowtaur the Great - Cat Folk. Paladin.

Wendy – Electra – Fighter. Human.

Charlie – Raeanna - Rogue. Human.

* * *

 **Hey Fairy Tail Fans!**

 **Thanks for the feedback on the last chapter! I didn't expect so many people to enjoy it, so I hope this one doesn't disappoint too!**

 **I hope the layout of this makes** **sense, and the playing style makes sense even if you don't know D &D. I don't want this too be too 'mechanics' heavy, unless they're making a joke about it.**

 **This was going to run along my own real life sessions, but I think it would take about 7 chapters to catch up to where we are now, and but there's not much point in putting most of it.** **Fun fact; One of my friends suggested 'why not just use the characters your friends were playing?' Well, multiple reasons, but I also pointed out of them made a character called 'Jezal' so we're not doing that XD**


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